[BluMiniMe]

Props to Caddman from Cat & Dog Racing, and RandyBMC! The how-to made the job a synch. Then again, I was able to work in a professional garage with a lift and floor jacks... and I'm a do-it-yerselfer, comfortable with anything short of cracking the case of a motor.

Installed the Alta 19%. 4 hours and one skinned knuckle to do the job by myself. The lower engine mount was fun getting lined back up, but not bad once I realized it was rubber mounted and not ridged-- just bend it down and over into its seat. I used Alta's pulley tool, and it worked great - I may sell it off now that I no longer need it. Everything went back together really quick.

Wow, amazing performance difference. With the DSC turned off the power is nearly violent! . Gets rubber in 3 gears, and revs so much quicker through the gears.

Have the Borla Sport installed, and waiting on a K&N Typhoon. Three more areas of my focus will be a header with a hi-flow cat, and looking for more efficient intercooling without adding complexity or weight (or expense) of air/H2O. I'm sorry but all the headers sold at Mini speciality stores are just outragiously expensive-- and is what one would pay for a full blown, custom, one-off designed header. So I'm leaning toward a simple Cat-less header and splicing in my Cat of choice. I'd love to hear suggestions on the Cat. Finally, will look at fuel and timing management. Not critical to me right now as the factory maps run rich and dump fuel to keep things from detonating.... but that's not really efficient either, eh? I'm encouraged by the UniChip, if they can get the DSC bug worked out and develope a map that can handle the 19% pulley and its associated heat issues, I may go that route.

regards